Welcome to the Anime Walk of Fame, a series of retrospectives on the many characters of the anime world. You'll see all your favorites along with a few that deserve more than their reputations give.

So sit back relax and enjoy the show.

Shiori is Not Uzaki-Chan

There's a trend of adult female characters who are short and busty, Uzaki started it and Shiori is another example of it but while Uzaki-Chan is a massive tease and full of gremlin energy, Shiori is kind, responsible and absolutely adorable.

At a guess, Shiori is in her early to mid twenties, there are people who are not comfortable seeing the Uzaki body type, so when Shiori is introduced, she throws a curveball at you, you think she's just someone who is just cute and easily submissive but quite often throughout the anime she proves her maturity credentials, just by being in the office environment, you've already eliminated some of the ecchi elements that weren't always wanted in Uzaki-Chan.
If it wasn't for the fact that Tiny Senpai is a romance anime, Shiori would function perfectly fine as a normal office lady with an appealing design, she even out right states that she's never had a relationship and has no one outside the office trying to protect her or push her into it making her very independent, a rare trait among female leads, in fact the office itself never really crosses the line in the support Shiori and Shinozaki get for their blossoming relationship.

Raimu Is The Stig

The Stig is a real life racing driver who participates in numerous car tests and silly challenges in the British Auto Magazine TV show Top Gear.
He remains silent, never speaking and occasionally engages in the goofy antics of the three hosts.
Part of his lore is that he is seemingly invincible and capable of things no other human can achieve, three real drivers have played the Stig, Perry McCarthy, Ben Collins and Michael Schumacher, no one knows who plays him currently but it's not unusual to have him being played by multiple drivers depending on location and availability and in the case of Schumacher, the owner of the car they were testing.
So when we get to Bakuon, we meet Raimu Kawasaki.

Raimu is the silent protagonist of the school motorcycle club, she communicates through body language and written signs never taking off her helmet, she has twin braids, a bow, a Simpson brand helmet and a sailor fuku school uniform, however it's revealed quite early on that she went to school with the teachers, even if you consider the teachers young, Raimu should be close to 30 years old, yet she doesn't age at all, making her an anime Stig, it's a fun little tribute to a character with origins in the UK, whether that's intentional, depends who you ask but I have no doubt where Raimu Kawasaki comes from.

Tomo Actually Suits Shorts

I've never been a fan of bike shorts as a fashion choice, especially when combined with a skirt, and it's not for the reasons you're thinking, I feel the same about a hood over a baseball cap and yet it strangely works for Tomo.

Tomo is treated like a bro by Jun for her tomboy personality, an environment in a Karate dojo with a large ham of a Dad can do that, it helps that she is the tallest girl in school and built like a powerhouse to boot but the conflict of the anime revolves around Tomo trying to convince Jun that she is a girl because she has a crush, as early as Episode 2, the subject of her bike shorts gets brought up and she tries a day without the shorts and she barely lasts.
Jun suggests she wears the boys uniform instead but this never happens, which turns her choice of wardrobe into a symbol of her conflicting hormones, the tomboy she's always been fighting against her ever growing love for Jun, it's not as though she can hide her assets either.
It's a common trope that the child who you treated as an equal suddenly grows and you realise they are definitely female or the friend who was your comrade in arms be it a goth, a chad or a sporting teammate is now fully transformed into a beautiful woman. Watamote's Yu Naruse being the best example.
I'm still in an early part of Tomo-Chan, but I am curious to see how this plays out.

Taiga's Rage Adds a Lot of Character

One of my biggest inspirations for Dawn Shriners is the Palm Top Tiger herself, in fact all my most rage induced characters come from Taiga.

In any other anime Taiga would be a delinquent but her small frame and her clumsiness combined with the fact that she can be adorably cute at times gives her more depth than your typical tsundere. Taiga's most definied character trait early on is her rage, a by product of her upbringing with lousy parents but it gives us an insight into her feelings and having Ryuji as a sponge for said feelings gives Taiga a chance to grow.
The only other character in animation who can get away with this level of tsundere is Helga Pataki of Hey Arnold fame, I'm sure the parallels between the two have been brought up before.
What helps Taiga is that her violent streaks have helped other characters open up which helps Ami early on, Toradora on paper should be an anime I hate but Taiga has shown a side of the tsundere that isn't explored enough as far too often, the vulnerability is ignored in favour of cartoonish violence for laughs, you have to wonder how a tsundere lasts in today's anime trends but Taiga proves they still have relevance.

Iketeru is Brilliant and Not Brilliant

The other character that inspired Dave Dreamer is Uramichi Oniisan's Iketeru Daga.

Iketeru is arguably the most put together of the broken adults of Uramichi Oniisan but not by his own admission, his crazy talent for singing and ability to learn something on just mere instructions alone, means he has a better time of things than most but there are moments where he can't function and his inability to read the room can make him extremely vulnerable, he has a meltdown over not being able to cut paper and his child like innocence makes him a giggling school girl at the mere thought of a dirty joke, he can't even win a proper argument without completely forgetting why it even happened.
The term for this is Savantism and that is pretty much Iketeru in a nutshell.